For the first time in the history of the Space Shuttle program, two Shuttles arrived via ferry flights at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport on the same day.Several days of bad weather and flight cancellations created the need for Atlantis and Columbia atop their special 747 carrier aircraft to land within hours of each other on March 5.
Atlantis arrived aboard the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft at KSC's Shuttle Landing Facility at about 10:45 a.m.
Because of the time needed to process Atlantis at the SLF, Columbia landed about 2:35 p.m. on the Skid Strip at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, next door to KSC.
The skid strip landing was another first in Space Shuttle history.
After Atlantis was towed to the Orbiter Processing Facility Bay 3, Columbia was ferried to the SLF on March 6, landing at 3:44 p.m.
The two space shuttles departed the Antelope Valley north of Los Angeles within less than an hour of each other on March 1.
Atlantis returned from mission STS-98 on Feb. 19, landing at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center located at Edwards AFB.
Columbia left from Palmdale, Calif., and Atlantis departed Edwards Air Force Base, north of Palmdale. The two space shuttle ferry flights were independent of each other, and not within each other's visual range.
Columbia had been in Palmdale for extensive avionics upgrades including a new, highly advanced "glass cockpit" that replaces mechanical instruments with 11 full-color flat-panel displays. Its upgrades include more than 100 modifications made over the past 18 months.
posted 08-05-2021 12:04 PM
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